The 'SI King' of Pompton Plains puts his magazine collection on the block

PEQUANNOCK--For sale: more than 10,000 autographed issues of Sports Illustrated magazines, a stash that includes every issue of the magazine since it debuted in 1954.

The cost? Only about $2 million.

Scott Smith and his collection of Sports Illustrated magazines at his home in Pompton Plains.
So far, there have been no takers. But by 8 o’clock tonight, when the offer expires, someone could be the proud owner of a collection that’s taken Scott Smith of Pompton Plains nearly three decades to compile.

Smith, the self-annointed “SI King,” advertised the cache of magazines on eBay weeks ago, setting the price at $1,999,999.

Is it worth it? Smith puts it this way: “A lot of the autographs are some you can’t get anymore, since they’re no longer around.”

Some of those names include Mickey Mantle, Sonny Liston and former President Ronald Reagan, who was featured on two covers.

An autographed Muhammad Ali cover
But even Smith, 44, admits that selling the collection is a long-shot. The offer targets high-end collectors and affluent professionals shopping for a pet project.

With the slumping economy, they might be hard to find. As of Friday afternoon, no one had even expressed an interest in buying the stockpile, which includes 3,881 signatures on 2,586 different magazine covers. He has multiple copies of many issues.

Each autograph is from the model or athlete featured on each cover. Considering that there are 2,773 issues that showcase someone on the front, Smith said he sports a 93 percent success rate for autographs.

He said he received almost all of the signatures himself. He’s spent 27 years tracking down athletes to boost his haul, and he’s searched for homeowners cleaning out their houses in his quest to purchase back issues.

Supermodel Elle MacPherson signed a cover for Smith.
The collection even includes signed copies of the magazine’s famed swimsuit editions, with autographs from cover girls such as Elle MacPherson. Smith said he’s currently on the hunt for Heidi Klum’s signature.

Smith claims that he’s gone to foreign embassies to track down long-forgotten athletes, and he used the website Yahoo! Answers last year to find Betty di Bugnano, a swimsuit-clad woman who graced a 1955 cover.

The price of the collection, he said, reflects the rarity of some of the signatures and the sweat it took to get them.

But the market for sports memorabilia isn’t what it used to be. The boom era for many sports collectibles, most notably trading cards, came in the early-to-mid 1990s, said Beckett Media publisher Tracy Hackler. a leading authority on sports collectibles.

Since then, demand for the items has “softened,” and sellers now face a buyer’s market, he said.

“But SI (Sports Illustrated) has always been in demand since it started,” he said. “Autographs are like timeless collectibles that will always be appreciated. That will never change.”

Will someone appreciate it enough to pay almost $2 million? Hackler wasn’t sure, but he said a collection of readable material might have more appeal than a single, rare trading card.

Whether or not someone buys the whole collection means little to Smith, a former Wall Street veteran who recently resigned from his job restructuring corporate debt.

The $2 million could support his family for life, he said, but still, “it’s like giving away a 27-year-old child or a baby.”

In the meantime, he’s seen an uptick in families requesting individual issues as the holiday season approaches.

Smith doesn’t plan to give up on his dreams of a big payday if he comes up empty-handed with the $2-million offer.